Saturday, November 17, 2007

This picture was taken yesterday at the United Rescue Mission's annual Thanksgiving celebration. I loved the colors. I think bright colors should be used as much as possible in Skid Row. Where, I do not know but tastefully employed so as to uplift the spirits of those that are within range of them.

I told you that I was getting lucky. Sometimes getting lucky just means acquiring one more bit of information. I believe that information is the most valuable commodity in the world. Always has been and always will be. Maybe that one more bit of information added to other information as well as a DILIGENT AND ACROSS THE BOARD CURRICULUM OF PREPARATION can result in opportunity. My experience on Skid Row, among other things, is a curriculum of many sorts. It is a review of many sorts and an integration of many sorts.---------As you know, my old high school has been intimately involved in the television and film industry since the beginning of the industries. Even Roy Disney went there as well as Douglas Fairbanks Jr. I love film and television,but for some reason, did not consider it as a kid. I think it was because I stuttered terribly. I also did not think I could write. Of course I only knew of the acting side of the business until later.

I began to research and study the television and film industry years ago. I started out as an extra with "The Trials of Rosie O'Neil", a televsion series with Sharon Gless. I learned alot about production. I remembered all of my friends, like Doug Wick and everyone talking about films every Monday at school.

When I was training for the Triathlon, one day, I had my alumni directory book in my hand.Why, I do not know. I was standing outside of the Lyon Athletic Center when it dropped. When I picked it up the first name I read on the page was Moonves.

I had been following Leslie Moonves for some time. I know he had been at the Bel Air Country Club on occasion. Many of my old school mates are members of that club. Their parents were members of the club. I used to pass it everyday while visiting friends of mine who resided Bel Air.

I wondered if the name in the book was related to Leslie Moonves. No doubt it was. I stored that bit of information into the my memory bank. I kept visitng the television classrooms at USC. I talked with professors. They guided me. I acqainted myself with the editing bays. I had been introduced to them when a girl friend of mine, a doctor and producer, started her own video company.

I figured I was going to write a book, or do a movie and I needed to utilize all of the school's resources to make it work. I figured the movie would touch on so many ways because I went to the school at a very unique time in US history and in the history of Los Angeles. Many players on the world stage came from that school or were connected to it.

I just had to keep studying. Keep healing myself. I realized that I was slowly developing, at least, the patience for writing. I had been writing for a few years, picking apart my life so that I could heal the different aspects that make Walter, Walter. It was the only way to move forward. I had to resolve the incompletes of my past, the incompletes that caused pain and fueled the use of drugs.

The one thing that saved me all of my life was that I always stayed in physical shape. Always.Training again, led to writing and learning about new things that I liked. I loved the patience of dealing with myself. I loved the process of "detail discovery".

When I was in jail, an article about CBS came out. Les Moonves was going to start a film division. I figured, before my arrest, that I would send him my resume. I figured it was his daughter that went to my school. I was not going to do anything until I finished drugs.I was ready when the world caved in on me.

I read the article and kept it. I would keep it next to me when I wrote in the middle of the night in the dormitory. I believe in the potential of it and understand the synergistic power already in place at CBS for its success. While studying, I realized I learned about many things. I learned to ask questions years ago. I always asked questions. I began to learn how to ask questions about businesses I did not know. However I was learning more about life. I knew from college terms like forward integration, backward integration, horizontal and vertical integration as they related to different pieces in the chain of an industry or conglomerate. "Ah, I said. That is how someone goes from president of a company in one industry to another in another industry, in which, he had no experience, " I said. The person knew the essentials of integration and knew how to probe for specifics that applied to the above referenced concepts that would enable an understanding of such. You hear me talk about linking so much. I had learned about linking life. I have been verbally reinforcing that by going through the linking procedures of sites so as to engrain inside of me that linking, blending is what I need to do to create.

I saved it. I carried it from jail to Skid Row. I kept it by my side. I kept it in my locker. I kept it when I was in the guard shack watching CBS News. I had it in mine when I watched 60 minutes the day they had the Kaiser Permanente dumping segment. "Dam, I said. I live 69 yards from where they dumped her. They dumped her at the Union Rescue Mission. They showed the address, 545, in the 60 minute segment. Rocky Delgadillo, the City Attorney and Jose Egurbide, the deputy attorney, were in the segment. I know both now and Jose is a friend of mine. Andy Bales, the president of the Union Rescue Mission has read my blog. (that surprised me.)

I told you I was going to take advantage of every moment I could of this computer where I lived. It goes out all of the time. People do not know how to use it. People treat it roughly. However, while it is operable, I plan on using it to acquire information that can help me in whatever way I can. I had written my blog and decided to exercise discipline in the pursuit of details. I wanted to train myself, discipline myself to input as much detail into writing as I can."Linking" is a vital part of writing, on the web. Linking is a vital part of gaining "fullness".

So in applying what I am learning in my self discovered and self discovering curriculum, I began to link this morning. In doing so I had to know the web address of my web school. I accessed the school address. I went to the web page to register in the alumni directory. I was pushing myself. I am going to push myself harder now than I ever did in my life. I pushed myself when I started Harvard School. I was in a new world. I was studying new things. The curriculum was demanding, though not as demanding as the curriculum of transcending different worlds several times a day and absorbing as well as understanding them. At that time I was also swimming two hours every day as an AAU Swimmer.

I was in jail from October to February, sitting in there for a misdemeanor violation and waiting for the courts to decide what to do. Four months. I was growing before all of that happened. I wasted time. I am going to do 3 times as much pushing of myself to make up for it.

While on the Harvard-Westlake home page I noticed the name Amy BosleyBaer'84. She graduated from Westlake 12 years after I graduated from Harvard School. On September 25, the day I moved into this building and the day I started my blogging career, Leslie Moonves announced that Ms Baer would be the CEO of CBS Films. It is another link. Damn, no doubt while at Westlake School, Ms Baer went to at least one Harvard School basketball game or something that was in the old gym. That means she was inside the gym that had my name on the tennis championship banner that hangs on the wall.

It is another "link", another potential "can" Perhaps I can work there. Never know. Perhaps I can integrate a story. Never know. My story touches on Alzheimers, just like the lady who was dropped off. My story touches on drugs. My story touches on the lack of understanding and the misunderstanding of both by the public, and more importantly by people who make policy and/or decisions that impact on the lives of people who are affected by both. Perhaps she can understand the importance of telling a story about these things and others that can affect the lives of people, that can change how decisions are made.

Years ago women experienced too many hysterectomies. Male doctors did not understand the female body or took the time to understand. Do the quick thing. Cut it out.My mother has dementia. A phone call was made. Other superficial or prejudicial bits of information are disclosed. Right or wrong, they were "TAKEN" as truth. No one took the time to understand my mother's history or mine. No one took the time to understand OUR PRESENT. He was on drugs. Cut him out. I was not on drugs when my mother did not recognize me. Maybe the story could be told. If not, maybe I could work there. It is anotherpotential. I was lucky enough because I was working hard enough to get that bit of information.I have to work hard enough to use it, to position myself to use it.ADDING MORE CURRICULUMI have been talking about training. I have been frustrated at not utilizing my space to do pushups or sit ups. I am organizing my room to do that. I am at that point. However,all morning, I have been doing pushups each time I needed to take a break.

I did the same thing when I was writing and training for the triathlon. I did pushups whenever I took a break from writing. I did situps whenever I was tired of doing pushups. I integrated and blended my daily activites. I am adding them as of today. I will post the number of pushups done at the end of each writing. When I am not here, no push ups will be done. None will be posted. However, know that I am intensifing my discipline and my personal development.

Feed It!

About Me

Living in downtown Los Angeles on a new adventure,
I landed on Skid Row in the month of February,2007, shell shocked and traumatized by the events of the previous months.
I entered a world full of many contrasts. Kind, caring supportive individuals. Cruel, blood sucking predators. Men and women who walk the streets with courageous dignity and those whose job it is to strip them of that dignity every day. A place of quaint warmth and beauty, and at the same time a harsh, cold and vicious jungle. I have experienced the toughest streets of Philadelphia and Harlem, New York as well as the shanty towns and favelas of Brazil. Yet nothing compares to what you feel when you are in Skid Row. Social Scientists from around the world come here to study it. Every social illness has its place in Skid Row. They come to learn about its effect on people. They leave learning more about themselves- their prejudices and the fear of what they do not know. There is nothing like it. This journal is about my experiences at the University of Skid Row.